We’ve heard that you want to make and see even more immersive videos on YouTube. That’s why we’re continuing to expand the ways anyone can create and watch VR content.

More ways to watch YouTube VR

With all the great content that’s available on YouTube today, we want to continue our effort to bring the YouTube VR app to everyone with a VR headset. Starting today, the app will be available on Oculus Go headsets via the Oculus Store.

Making it easier to create VR180 content

Last year we introduced VR180, a new video format that focuses on what’s in front of the camera while delivering a 3D effect in a VR headset. By focusing only on the 180-degree view of what’s in front of the camera, it made VR video production easier for creators like you, encouraging more VR videos than ever before.

Since then we’ve introduced new tools to make this type of video creation even easier. We launched the VR180 Creator Tool that makes it faster to process footage, add metadata and publish. The tool is available on MacOS, Linux and now on Windows.

With the latest editing tools from Adobe, it’s also significantly easier for you to edit, add effects and publish your content. And with new VR180 capable cameras from Kandao and Vuze, you now have more options for capturing VR180 to complement cameras from Z-Cam and Lenovo.

Creating more immersive VR videos

Spatial audio can help make haunted houses more scary and imaginary video game worlds more real. That’s because it matches realistic sounds and picture together for a more immersive experience. We’ve recently added support for head-locked audio, which means that you can add narration and background music that will sound the same no matter where you look.

VR videos unlock a world of experiences. With new and easier ways to create and watch VR content, we look forward to seeing what stories you tell, locations you transport viewers to and experiences you uncover.

This op-ed originally appeared in the Financial Times.
Creativity has long been a guiding force in my life, which is why I jumped at the opportunity to be YouTube’s chief executive nearly five years ago.

Creators have used YouTube to share their voices, inspire their fans, and build their livelihoods. Kurzgesagt — In a Nutshell recently became the number one channel in Germany by creating videos that help others fall in love with science. Artists like Dua Lipa and Ed Sheeran reached fans on YouTube long before they were discovered by a label. And acclaimed musicians like Elton John have used our site to breathe new life into iconic songs.

We have worked hard to ensure creators and artists are fairly compensated for their work. In the last year, YouTube paid content owners across the EU €800m. We have also paid the global music industry more than €1.5bn from advert-generated revenue alone.

However, this creator economy is under threat from a section of the EU’s efforts to revise its copyright directive, known as article 13, which holds internet companies directly responsible for any copyright infringement in the content shared on their platform.

While we support the goals of article 13, the European Parliament’s current proposal will create unintended consequences that will have a profound impact on the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people.

The parliament’s approach is unrealistic in many cases because copyright owners often disagree over who owns what rights. If the owners cannot agree, it is impossible to expect the open platforms that host this content to make the correct rights decisions.

Take the global music hit “Despacito”. This video contains multiple copyrights, ranging from sound recording to publishing rights. Although YouTube has agreements with multiple entities to license and pay for the video, some of the rights holders remain unknown. That uncertainty means we might have to block videos like this to avoid liability under article 13. Multiply that risk with the scale of YouTube, where more than 400 hours of video are uploaded every minute, and the potential liabilities could be so large that no company could take on such a financial risk.

We have already taken steps to address copyright infringement by developing technology, like our Content ID programme, to help rights holders manage their copyrights and earn money automatically. More than 98 per cent of copyright management on YouTube takes place through Content ID. To date, we have used the system to pay rights holders more than €2.5bn for third party use of their content. We believe Content ID provides the best solution for managing rights on a global scale.

The consequences of article 13 go beyond financial losses. EU residents are at risk of being cut off from videos that, in just the last month, they viewed more than 90bn times. Those videos come from around the world, including more than 35m EU channels, and they include language classes and science tutorials as well as music videos.

We welcome the chance to work with policymakers and the industry to develop a solution within article 13 that protects rights holders while also allowing the creative economy to thrive. This could include more comprehensive licensing agreements, collaboration with rights holders to identify who owns what, and smart rights management technology, similar to Content ID.

Platforms that follow these rules, and make a good effort to help rights holders identify their content, shouldn’t be held directly liable for every single piece of content that a user uploads. We ask policymakers to find a solution that protects rights holders and creators alike, and listen to the growing number of EU voices, including some member countries, who agree there’s a better way forward.

Since 2005, YouTube has transformed from a single video at the zoo to a global video library where billions of people turn to each day for knowledge, creativity and connection. Today, YouTube is a diverse community of creators who are building the next generation of media companies and drawing fans from every corner of the world. You are making history and changing the way people watch video, engage with each other and share their voice. I feel honored to help you do this, and I continue to be inspired by what I see.

In the last year, the number of channels with over 1 million subscribers has increased by 75%. Each month, more than one billion fans come to YouTube to be part of music culture and discover new songs and artists. Building on that momentum, we’ve expanded YouTube Music to the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia, Canada, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Brazil. We also rolled out three new stories on Janelle Monáe, J Balvin and Shawn Mendes in our YouTube Artist Spotlight series over the last few months. And we launched 13 YouTube Originals in the last quarter, including three in Germany and two in France.

All of this is possible because of the creative economy powered by you. However, this growing creative economy is at risk, as the EU Parliament voted on Article 13, copyright legislation that could drastically change the internet that you see today.

Article 13 as written threatens to shut down the ability of millions of people -- from creators like you to everyday users -- to upload content to platforms like YouTube. And it threatens to block users in the EU from viewing content that is already live on the channels of creators everywhere. This includes YouTube’s incredible video library of educational content, such as language classes, physics tutorials and other how-to’s.

This legislation poses a threat to both your livelihood and your ability to share your voice with the world. And, if implemented as proposed, Article 13 threatens hundreds of thousands of jobs, European creators, businesses, artists and everyone they employ. The proposal could force platforms, like YouTube, to allow only content from a small number of large companies. It would be too risky for platforms to host content from smaller original content creators, because the platforms would now be directly liable for that content. We realize the importance of all rights holders being fairly compensated, which is why we built Content ID and a platform to pay out all types of content owners. But the unintended consequences of article 13 will put this ecosystem at risk. We are committed to working with the industry to find a better way. This language could be finalized by the end of the year, so it’s important to speak up now.

Please take a moment to learn more about how it could affect your channel and take action immediately. Tell the world through social media (#SaveYourInternet) and your channel why the creator economy is important and how this legislation will impact you.

Please read on for an update on our priorities for 2018.

Communication & Transparency

As I’ve written to you before, we’ve made a conscious effort to communicate with you more in the place where your conversations are taking place--social and video. Based on your feedback, we’ve also increased the number of product updates or “heads up” messages regarding changes to YouTube, including smaller tests or experiments, on our @TeamYouTube handle and the Creator Insider channel. And we continue to share helpful tutorials and inspiring creator stories on our YouTube Creators channel, formerly the Creator Academy channel. We’re working to increase these efforts. I’m posting more videos to my own channel and the Creator Insider channel just posted their 100th video!

We’ve heard that you want communication from us in a simplified way and in one central location. To that point, we launched YouTube Studio, the new one-stop shop for platform news and product updates. This is the primary place for getting YouTube-related information, such as announcements about new features, creator academy videos and Creator Insider weekly news flashes. This easy-to-view dashboard is THE place you can go to find the latest news and will be the new homepage for all creators by end of the year.

Finally, our leadership continues to meet face-to-face with creators around the world. Robert Kyncl and Neal Mohan spoke to creators from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa at the Creator Summit in Berlin. Robert continued his series of Creator Interviews with Caspar Lee in Berlin and Gautam Anand, Managing Director of YouTube APAC, sat down with Korean creator Dotty in Seoul. We saw incredible turn out at our Creator Summit in Seoul, with creators from across Asia Pacific, and, we look forward to hosting Latin American creators at our final 2018 Creator Summit in November.

Helping you succeed

Monetization is the heart of your business. To that end, we released an update to our monetization systems this quarter, which improved the accuracy of monetization icons by 10%.

In my last letter, I talked about our pilot to test a new video upload flow that asks creators to provide specific information about what’s in their video as it relates to our advertiser-friendly guidelines. Most creators in the pilot were able to accurately represent the content in their video, and it is providing more transparency to creators in terms of what type of content is suitable for ads. We hope to offer self certification to more creators before end of year and plan to expand broadly in early 2019.

This summer, we announced Channel Memberships, and since then, we’ve seen thousands of creators take advantage of this feature. For instance, Wintergatan, creator of the Marble Machine, grew his revenue by more than 50% since adding channel memberships and is using it to fund his next generation Marble Machine and a World Tour. Gaming creator Markiplier increased his revenue by 20% and Comedy creator Mike Falzone tripled his YouTube revenue. We’ve also seen creators use Memberships to support creative endeavours, such as TriStar Gym offering exclusive Brazilian Jiu Jitsu technique videos and Ola Englund offering guitar lessons online to members. Because of this success, we're accelerating the roll-out of memberships to more channels and lowering the subscriber threshold from 100,000 to 50,000 subscribers. We plan to expand memberships to even more of you in the months to come.

Over the past few weeks, we've hosted three special editions of our NextUp camps designed to support up-and-coming Black, Latino and women creators. We received more applications for this round than any other before it. If you missed your chance to apply this time, please stay tuned for the next round. We are hosting two more in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and St. Petersburg, Russia and plan to announce more in the coming months.

Giving people more ways to engage

Since we announced Premieres this summer, creators have been using this new feature to generate more views, more engagement and more revenue for their channel. For instance, Twenty One Pilots premiered their new video My Blood to more than 75,000 fans who watched it together and engaged over live chat and comments. One of our top gaming creators, TheRadBrad, tried it out and told his fans in his live chat that “it was one of the coolest experiences in my 8 years on YouTube.” And Linus Tech Tips’ premiere of his recent tech reviews was one of his best performing videos. I’m happy to announce that premieres is now available to all creators.

We recently introduced YouTube Giving, a suite of features that allow creators and nonprofits to raise funds for causes they care about directly on YouTube videos and live streams. While these features are currently in beta, we’ve seen creators use them to create inspiring impact. Hope for Paws raised over $100,000 in the first 10 days, and over 12 gaming creators have teamed up with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to raise over $125,000 throughout Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Our hope is to expand these features soon to more creators so that they can give back and support causes they care about.

Finally, we’re building a stronger gaming community on YouTube with features, such as our new Gaming Destination, Gaming Creator on the Rise and dedicated pages for over 80,000 games. We’ll also be retiring the standalone gaming app next year. We know this change impacts a lot of you, but it will allow gaming creators to have greater access to fans while still providing a unique gaming experience.

Tightening and enforcing our policies

One of our biggest priorities from a policy perspective has been investing in the news experience on YouTube and tackling misinformation. In close collaboration with many of our news partners, we've rolled out a number of changes to address them. For example, we have worked to make credible sources more readily available to users and rolled out breaking news and top news shelves in 23 countries. We also hosted the first YouTube News working group meeting at our headquarters and used this opportunity to listen to news organizations, academics, and creators on how we can improve news on the platform. Finally, we’re supporting journalism with technology that allows news to thrive, including an innovation fund to help news organizations sustainably build their video capabilities. We know we have more to do to combat misinformation, and we will continue to invest in innovative solutions to address this.

We also continue to provide updates to our YouTube Community Guidelines enforcement report, which you can read here.

Learning and education

Learning is one of the best parts of YouTube. In recent months, BookTubers came together for their annual BookTubeAThon, during which creators read books, shared their thoughts via their channels and inspired people around the world to do the same. We also saw “Study with me” videos gain popularity--motivating users to persevere through their own study sessions.

We’re committed to empowering both the creators who want to share their knowledge with the world and the users who come to our platform to learn--from home improvements to the basics of physics to grammar lessons. Today I’m happy to announce we’re investing $20 million in YouTube Learning, an initiative to support education focused creators and expert organizations that create and curate high quality learning content on YouTube. Part of this investment includes a Learning Fund to support creators who want to build multi-session learning content for YouTube. If you’re interested in this program, please fill out this form.

As part of efforts to support creators who are sharing their knowledge on the platform, we also launched Learning, a new channel of curated tutorials, DIY videos, skill-based playlists, and other high-quality educational content from a range of creators. And we hosted three YouTube EduCon gatherings in Los Angeles, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro. These conferences were great opportunities for Edutubers to network and learn new skills, and we’re planning to hold more conferences in new places in the upcoming year.

At YouTube, we hope to give back. We’ve worked with Lily Singh to support girls’ education and fight violence against children, and we teamed up with Priyanka Chopra, BB Ki Vines, and MostlySane to encourage girls’ literacy and education around the world. Please take a moment to watch and support theses causes.

Thank you for making YouTube an incredible source of creativity, knowledge and inspiration. As always, keep the feedback coming. I’m listening.

YouTube is where the world watches gaming. More than 200 million of you come to YouTube every single day to watch gaming videos and streams. That’s like the entire country of Brazil heading to YouTube daily. And that’s because of you, the community of gamers and creators who have turned YouTube into the gaming video platform it is today. From mobile gaming to strategy guides, Let’s Plays to Esports and charity live streams, you’ve created a place for everyone, from hard core to casual gamers.

We’re always working to make the gaming experience on YouTube better. Over the past few years we’ve focused on building tools and experiences that the gaming community has been asking for. That’s why in 2015, we launched YouTube Gaming, a standalone app for gamers where we tested new features like Game Pages for better discoverability, Super Chat and Channel Memberships to help fans show support for their favorite creators, Dark Theme and even a new live streaming platform based on the gaming community’s feedback. The response to these features has been so positive that we brought them over from the YouTube Gaming app to the main YouTube experience.

Today, we’re launching a new Gaming destination to give gamers a home on YouTube! You can find the new YouTube Gaming destination at youtube.com/gaming.

At the very top of the page you’ll see personalized gaming content based on what you like to watch. You’ll also see top live games and the latest gaming videos from your subscriptions, bringing the best of uploaded videos and live gaming to one destination. We’ve also built dedicated shelves for live streams and trending videos.

Everyone has a favorite game. You can now find gaming videos from all over YouTube, related to that specific game on new game pages. These include popular videos, live streams, and other games from the same publisher or developer. With tens of thousands of different game pages, you’ll be able to find content no matter how big or small the game is.

We want to do more to help our smaller creators grow on YouTube too, so we’ll be highlighting gaming creators who are “On The Rise” on the Gaming destination and in Trending. Each week we’ll showcase a new up and coming gaming creator to help more fans discover their content. This is launching in the U.S., and we’ll continue to roll this out to more countries in the future.

We have a strong and vibrant audience on the YouTube Gaming app, but the amount of gamers we are able to reach is far bigger on YouTube. After all, YouTube is where more than 200 million gamers come to engage with your favorite games and creators every day, watching over 50 billion hours of gaming content in the last 12 months alone. That’s why, in March 2019, we’ll retire the YouTube Gaming app and focus all of our gaming efforts on YouTube where we can reach our entire gaming community.

From creators like elrubiusOMG who has hit live gaming records, to Ninja, the fastest growing creator in YouTube’s history who helped usher in the era of Fortnite, or itsFunneh who became one of our biggest gaming creators by making us all laugh with Minecraft and Roblox videos, we thank you for building a strong gaming community on YouTube. We’re committed to helping gaming creators succeed and look forward to seeing how you all continue to shape the future of gaming.

This summer, we opened applications to three special editions of our NextUp camps designed to support up-and-coming Black, Latino and women creators on the platform: NextUp #YouTubeLatino, NextUp #YouTubeBlack, and NextUp #WomentoWatch.

After reviewing thousands of applications, we’re excited to introduce the winners who will be attending these NextUp camps in Los Angeles, New York and London this fall:

These creators will join us for week-long creator camps at our YouTube Spaces in Los Angeles, New York and London this fall. As part of the camps, creators will attend production workshops that provide a crash course on how to up-level their YouTube content through classes on advanced camera, lighting, and sound techniques. In addition to learning about video production, creators will receive one-on one-advice about their YouTube channel strategy from the YouTube Partnerships team, and they’ll have the chance to network with each other as well as NextUp grads. At the end of the week, creators will leave with a voucher for new production equipment that can help them put their new skills into practice.

We can’t wait to welcome these creators to our YouTube Spaces in Los Angeles, New York and London in the coming weeks! For more information, visit youtube.com/nextup and follow the action on Twitter with #YTNextUp.

One of the best parts of my job is meeting and speaking with creators and artists around the world. I’m excited to be heading to YouTube’s Creator Summit in Berlin next week where I'll have the chance to do exactly that. The community of YouTube creators that you are all a part of represents a new era of media: from news vlogger Ischtar Isik who has interviewed Chancellor Merkel, to philosopher Alain de Botton's School of Life; from educators such as robotics enthusiast Simone Giertz and Spanish science channel ExpCaseros, to MadeYewLook’s channel on body painting. I’m proud that YouTube can provide a place for creators to find fans, success and revenue.

The open internet eliminated the barriers of traditional media gatekeepers and ignited a new global creative economy for creators and artists. It has given anyone with an idea the ability to share their passion, find fans all over the world and build a business. Despite best intentions, I believe this may now be at risk as European policymakers prepare to vote on a new European Copyright Directive on September 12. In fact, some parts of the proposal under consideration – and in particular the part known as "Article 13” -- potentially undermine this creative economy, discouraging or even prohibiting platforms from hosting user-generated content. This outcome would not only stifle your creative freedom, it could have severe, negative consequences for the fans, the communities and the revenue you have all worked so hard to create.

Creators and artists have built businesses on the back of openness and supported by our sophisticated copyright management tools, including Content ID and the recently launched Copyright Match Tool that manages re-uploads of creators’ content. Copyright holders have control over their content: they can use our tools to block or remove their works, or they can keep them on YouTube and earn advertising revenue. In over 90% of cases, they choose to leave the content up. Enabling this new form of creativity and engagement with fans can lead to mass global promotion and even more revenue for the artist. For instance, a growing list of global artists have seen their songs go viral in fan-made dance videos, such as Drake’s “In My Feelings” and Maître Gims’ Sapés Comme Jamais. Dua Lipa got her start singing covers and Alan Walker allowed his track Fade to be used in user generated content and video games, which helped him build a massive global fanbase. That’s what makes platforms like YouTube special: fan videos have the power to help propel established songs to new heights and even break new artists. This is the new creative economy in action.

Growing up behind the iron curtain in communist Czechoslovakia without the openness we now take for granted, I have a deep personal conviction to preserve this freedom. I have made my voice heard here and there’s still time for you to weigh in before September 12th. Every single creator, including you, deserves their say. I hope you will learn more and consider sharing your views on social media (#SaveYourInternet) and with policymakers. Along with the links above, you can also learn more at ChangeCopyright.org.

#LoveArmyMexico, Cards Against Humanity LIVE, Dancember, Project for Awesome, Pride Live. From live streams to community campaigns, it’s humbling to see how creators around the world use YouTube as a platform to bring together communities and champion the causes they care about. These movements remind us about what is (and has always been) so special about YouTube -- the deep and meaningful connections between creators and their fans, and the powerful impact they build together.

Today we’re sharing a first look at YouTube Giving, a suite of features designed to strengthen the way creators and fans can make a difference through charitable giving on the platform to over 1M nonprofits. These features include Fundraisers (beta), Community fundraisers (beta), Campaign matching (beta), and Super Chat for Good.

Fundraisers (beta) - Use your voice for good

With this feature, YouTube creators and qualifying US-registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits can create and embed a fundraising campaign right next to their videos and live streams. Fundraisers allow fans to donate to creator-led campaigns directly on YouTube via a “Donate” button, making it easier than ever for creators and fans to raise funds for causes they care about on the platform. Creators can simply set up their campaigns, and let us take care of the logistics and payment processing.

This first beta period will be available to a limited group of creators in the US and Canada. If you’re looking to try this out today, check out this Hope for Paws Fundraiser dedicated to raising funds towards animal rescue and recovery. As part of this beta period, YouTube will also cover all transaction fees so that 100% of donations go to the nonprofit.

Community Fundraisers (beta) - Do more good together

We’re also rolling out a beta version of Community Fundraisers to a limited group of US creators and qualifying US-registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits that allows multiple creators to co-host the same fundraiser. The feature is designed so that a Community Fundraiser will appear on participating creators’ videos at the same time and reflect the collective amount of money their communities are raising together.

In time for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in the US, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and 12 gaming creators with over 37 million subscribers combined are teaming up for a special edition of St. Jude PLAY LIVE on YouTube, a fundraising event using the Community Fundraisers beta feature. Check out these creators’ videos to get involved: AbdallahSmash026, Aphmau, AtomicMari, Blessious, Funhaus, IGN, ItsFunneh, JeromeASF, KreekCraft, LaurenzSide, Noahj456, and Smosh Games.

Campaign matching (beta) - Multiply your impact for good

In the coming weeks, we’ll also roll out Campaign Matching, allowing creators who organize Fundraisers and Community Fundraisers to receive matching pledges to help amplify their efforts. This beta feature will display matching pledges from other creators or brands directly within the Fundraiser to help inspire more fans to get involved and maximize impact. As with the above betas, access will roll out to additional creators in the coming weeks.

Super Chat for Good - Livestream for good

Additionally, we’re launching Super Chat for Good which enables creators to raise funds for qualifying US-registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits on live streams and Premiere videos. When an eligible creator enables Super Chat for Good, 100% of Super Chat for Good purchases will be automatically routed to a qualifying nonprofit chosen by the creator. They work like the Super Chats that you already know and love, highlighting your message in the chat stream and showing your support for your favorite creators and the causes they care about.

Our inspiration for building YouTube Giving tools has been you -- the way you use your voices to create impact on important issues, whether helping out in a crisis or championing a cause. Over the coming months, we’ll listen to your feedback on these beta features and continue to expand access to more creators. We can’t wait to see how you’ll use these tools to create even more impact with your YouTube channels!